Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party secured a sweeping win in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, capturing about 316 seats in the 465-member lower house and achieving a governing supermajority alongside allies. The result gives her a strong mandate to advance a conservative agenda focused on defense, immigration and economic reforms, the Associated Press reported.

A heavy metal fan and drummer, Takaichi — who has long cited former British PM Margaret Thatcher as a personal and political inspiration — expressed gratitude for President Trump’s support, thanking him for his congratulatory message following the victory and signaling continued alignment with Washington.

Trump praised her leadership in a post after the results were announced. ‘Congratulations to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her Coalition on a LANDSLIDE Victory in today’s very important Vote,’ Trump wrote on social media, ‘Sanae’s bold and wise decision to call for an election paid off big time. Her Party now runs the Legislature, holding a HISTORIC TWO THIRDS SUPERMAJORITY — The first time since World War II. Sanae: It was my Honor to Endorse you and your Coalition. I wish you Great Success in passing your Conservative, Peace Through Strength Agenda. The wonderful people of Japan, who voted with such enthusiasm, will always have my strong support.’

The election outcome represents one of the strongest performances for the ruling party in years and solidifies Takaichi’s position only months after taking office as Japan’s first female prime minister.

Following the results, Takaichi said she was prepared to move forward with policies aimed at making Japan ‘strong and prosperous,’ as she seeks to implement reforms and bolster national security, the Associated Press reported.

Her agenda includes boosting defense spending, revising security policies and stimulating economic growth, while maintaining a tougher posture toward regional threats such as China. Known for her hawkish stance on Beijing, Takaichi is expected to maintain Japan’s close alignment with the United States.

‘Takaichi’s landslide win shows other leaders that defiance of China can be popular with voters. Nobody has to appease or please Xi Jinping anymore,’ Asia analyst Gordon Chang told Fox News Digital.

U.S. officials also welcomed the outcome. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described aid on Fox News’ ‘Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo’ that Takaichi is a strong ally and emphasized that her leadership strengthens the strategic partnership between Washington and Tokyo.

Takaichi’s victory is widely seen as a geopolitical signal as well as a domestic political triumph. Analysts say the strengthened mandate could deepen cooperation with the United States on security and economic policy at a time of rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific.

The snap election, called just months into her premiership, was widely viewed as a referendum on her leadership. With the opposition fragmented, voters delivered a decisive result that now gives Takaichi political space to pursue her agenda through the remainder of the parliamentary term.

Takaichi backs strengthening Japan’s defense posture and supports constitutional revision to expand the role of the military. Economically, she has praised the stimulus-driven policies associated with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Her public thanks to Trump underscores how central the U.S. alliance remains to Tokyo’s strategy moving forward, experts say, as she prepares to translate electoral momentum into legislative and security action at home and abroad.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing one of the most serious crises of his premiership after a cascade of resignations, renewed scrutiny over his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to Washington and mounting unrest inside the ruling Labor Party ahead of a critical meeting of members of Parliament Monday evening.

On Monday, Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar became the most senior party figure to call for Starmer’s resignation, saying ‘the distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change,’ according to the Associated Press. His intervention piles fresh pressure on the prime minister.

At the center of the crisis are newly publicized materials detailing Mandelson’s links to Jeffrey Epstein, revelations that have reshaped the political stakes and triggered questions about vetting at the highest levels of government. Documents cited by Fox News Digital report Mandelson maintained contact with Epstein after his 2008 conviction, and that Epstein transferred about $75,000 in 2003 and 2004 to accounts connected to Mandelson or his husband.

Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff and one of the most influential figures inside Downing Street, stepped down on Sunday after acknowledging his role in recommending Mandelson for the diplomatic post. In a resignation statement obtained by The Guardian, McSweeney said the decision was ‘wrong’ and he accepted responsibility, calling his departure the ‘only honorable course.’

The pressure intensified hours later when Tim Allan, the prime minister’s director of communications, also resigned, according to GB News. Allan, a veteran New Labor strategist, became the second senior aide to exit as the political fallout deepened.

Dr. John Hemmings, director of the National Security Center at the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital the prime minister is now under escalating political pressure and that ‘it’s unclear as to whether he’ll survive.’

‘Prime Minister Starmer is coming under ever-increasing political pressure to resign here in London in the wake of the scandal around Lord Mandelson — his appointed ambassador to the United States — and his connection to Jeffrey Epstein. He has lost two close aides and is under attack for his China foreign policy. The Chagos Deal is under scrutiny and his trip to Beijing was largely viewed as devoid of real results,’ Hemmings said.

Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, added: ‘It is extraordinary to be in a situation where a prime minister who won a landslide general election victory only 20 months ago is now on the verge of being forced to resign. We are here as a result of a series of policy U-turns and bad judgment calls culminating in the Lord Mandelson debacle. His fate is now ultimately in the hands of the Parliamentary Labor Party tonight. If he feels he no longer has their confidence, then there is every chance that this will be the end of Keir Starmer.’

Starmer has sought to contain the damage, saying he regrets the appointment. In remarks reported by GB News on Monday, the prime minister said: ‘I have been absolutely clear that I regret the decision that I made to appoint Peter Mandelson. And I’ve apologized to the victims, which is the right thing to do.’ He added that scandals of this kind risk undermining public faith in politics.

The prime minister now faces a showdown with Labor lawmakers, with backbench MPs expected to challenge his leadership at a party meeting Monday evening U.K. time. A senior Labor MP told GB News the ‘clock is ticking’ and called for decisive action to ‘cleanse politics.’

Downing Street has insisted Starmer will not resign despite the double departure. A spokesperson told journalists that the prime minister is ‘getting on with the job in hand and delivering change across the country,’ and he remains ‘upbeat and confident,’ and retains Cabinet support.

The political damage, however, extends beyond staffing turmoil. Mandelson was withdrawn from the ambassador role after additional details about his relationship with Epstein emerged, and he resigned from the Labor Party earlier this month, leaving Starmer confronting what experts describe as the most acute test of his leadership since taking office.

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The House Oversight Committee’s deposition of Ghislaine Maxwell ended less than an hour after it began on Monday morning, when the convicted accomplice of the late Jeffrey Epstein pleaded the Fifth Amendment.

Maxwell appeared before lawmakers virtually for a closed-door interview in the House bipartisan probe into the federal government’s handling of Epstein’s case.

She is currently serving out a 20-year sentence at a Texas prison.

Both House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a member of the committee, said they expected Maxwell to plead the Fifth Amendment in the lead-up to her scheduled sit-down.

The former British socialite was found guilty in December 2021 of being an accomplice in Epstein’s scheme to sexually traffic and exploit female minors.

The DOJ said at the time of her sentencing that Maxwell ‘enticed and groomed minor girls to be abused in multiple ways.’

Comer announced lawmakers would hear from Maxwell late last month during a meeting on holding former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for refusing to appear for his Epstein probe.

‘We’ve been trying to get her in for a deposition. Our lawyers have been saying that she’s going to plead the Fifth, but we have nailed down a date, Feb. 9, where Ghislaine Maxwell will be deposed by this committee,’ Comer said at the time.

Contempt proceedings against the Clintons stalled, however, after they agreed via their attorneys to appear in person on Capitol Hill just days before the full House of Representatives was expected to vote on referring the pair to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal charges.

Comer’s team had been in a back-and-forth with Maxwell’s attorney for months trying to nail down a date for her to speak to committee lawyers.

He agreed to delay her previous planned deposition in August after her lawyer asked him to wait until after the Supreme Court decided whether it would hear her appeal. The Supreme Court turned down Maxwell’s case in October.

She and the Clintons’ depositions are part of the House Oversight Committee’s months-long probe into how the government handled Epstein’s case. 

Senate Republicans confirmed half a dozen of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees last week, continuing a quick pace to green-light as many of his picks as possible.

While the Senate GOP is moving fast to confirm Trump’s judicial nominees, the president and some of his allies want to see an over-century-old tradition in the Senate that provides bipartisan guardrails to the judicial nomination process be eviscerated.

They contend that the blue slip tradition is slowing down Republicans from being able to confirm picks, and that Democrats are holding the process hostage. 

‘Nuking the blue slip would be a huge mistake,’ Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital.

Tillis, like several other Republicans, has argued that the blue slips are a valuable tool of the minority, and that inevitably, the GOP would need to use the tradition to their advantage when Democrats regain control of the upper chamber.

The Senate has confirmed 33 judges since the start of Trump’s second term, a figure that dwarfs the number of total judicial nominees, including U.S. attorneys, district and circuit court judges, moved through the upper chamber during his first go-round in the White House.

During the first year of his first term, the Senate confirmed 19 Article III nominees, including the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. 

Though Republicans are far ahead of Trump’s first time clip, Democrats under former President Joe Biden still outpaced them in this metric. Biden clocked 42 total judicial nominees confirmed during the first year of his term.

Whether the Senate can outpace Trump’s final total of 234 judicial nominees from his first term remains to be seen, but for now the blue slip appears to be safe. 

Still, Trump sounded off on the practice late last year in the Oval Office, arguing that the GOP should ‘get rid of blue slips, because, as a Republican President, I am unable to put anybody in office having to do with U.S. attorneys or having to do with judges.’

Much of his frustration with the tradition, which has been around for over 100 years in the upper chamber, likely stemmed from the nominations of Alina Habba and Lindsey Halligan getting derailed by blue slips last year.

He’s taken his frustrations out on Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a vocal proponent of the practice, and other Republicans that want to maintain the tradition. 

Notably, Grassley modified the tradition in 2017 to allow for circuit court judges to skirt the process, further boosting the number of judges Republicans were able to confirm under Trump despite Democratic objections. 

When asked if the Senate’s pace in confirming judicial nominees further affirmed that the blue slip was here to stay, Grassley told Fox News Digital, ‘It doesn’t need to be a present question.’

‘Because it’s a question of 110 years, and everybody in the Senate wants to maintain the blue slip,’ Grassley said.

Lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee are expected to be face-to-face with Ghislaine Maxwell Monday, the notorious accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring with the late billionaire pedophile.

Maxwell is due to appear virtually before the congressional panel at 10 a.m. ET while currently serving out her sentence at a Texas prison. Her deposition will be behind closed doors, meaning it will not be viewed publicly unless the committee chooses to release video footage after the fact.

It’s likely to be a brief engagement, with Maxwell expected to plead the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced lawmakers would hear from Maxwell during a meeting on holding former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for refusing to appear for his Epstein probe.

‘We’ve been trying to get her in for a deposition. Our lawyers have been saying that she’s going to plead the Fifth, but we have nailed down a date, Feb. 9, where Ghislaine Maxwell will be deposed by this committee,’ Comer said last month.

Contempt proceedings against the Clintons stalled, however, after they agreed via their attorneys to appear in person on Capitol Hill just days before the full House of Representatives was expected to vote on referring the pair to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal charges.

Comer’s team had been in a back-and-forth with Maxwell’s attorney for months trying to nail down a date for her to speak to committee lawyers.

He agreed to delay her previous planned deposition in August after her lawyer asked him to wait until after the Supreme Court decided whether it would hear her appeal. The Supreme Court turned down Maxwell’s case in October.

The former British socialite was found guilty in December 2021 of being an accomplice in Epstein’s scheme to sexually traffic and exploit female minors.

The DOJ said at the time of her sentencing that Maxwell ‘enticed and groomed minor girls to be abused in multiple ways.’

Epstein had been awaiting trial when he killed himself in a New York City jail in 2019.

Her deposition is part of the House Oversight Committee’s months-long probe into how the government handled Epstein’s case. 

Neither party has put a stake in the ground on the issue that will drive the next presidential election cycle. Artificial intelligence is expected to transform the global economy at a dizzying pace, radically reordering nearly every industry and bringing with it unprecedented disruptions in the labor market.

Nobody is prepared to address what could be the biggest issue of 2028. In a recent earnings call, xAI founder Elon Musk described an exciting era of abundance in which AI and robotics take over labor and Americans enjoy what he calls ‘universal high income.’ But that vision raises more questions than it answers.

Where do people go when entire industries shrink? How do we fulfill our need for meaningful work? Who decides how to distribute this ‘universal high income?’ What is the role of higher education? How much government would we need?

As America approaches its 250th anniversary this summer, we celebrate principles of individual liberty, free markets and limited government that have propelled our prosperity for more than two centuries. Are those principles compatible with Musk’s vision of a post-labor economy featuring universal income distribution? 

We have to come to terms with where this AI revolution could take us. In the world of politics, which tends to follow where the winds are blowing, what are the principles that remain timeless? Who do we trust to steer us in these uncertain waters?

Economic incentives are about to shift dramatically. Will free-market Republicans be tempted to become protectionists? Will big government progressives have to embrace deregulation and nuclear energy to protect threatened industries?

I expect every other issue to take a backseat to the looming questions that affect young and old, rich and poor. Traditional political alignments may be turned on their heads. This is too important for us to get it wrong. We can’t just respond reflexively. 

AI may offer Americans a generational opportunity to double down on the foundational principles that historically drove our prosperity. But we can expect strong headwinds pushing us toward revisiting the collectivist experiments that have consistently failed in the past.

The rules are changing. You used to be able to protect your likeness, your works. We had patents, trademarks, boundaries. But now with deepfakes, generative AI and apps that will undress anyone at the touch of a button, we need to come together to establish a better framework of boundaries.

Both parties need to come up with a vision to steer AI toward empowerment, foster independence and amplify human potential rather than erode it. Historical precedents suggest technological advances, though disruptive, ultimately create more opportunities than they destroy.

I’m hopeful that AI will create new roles we cannot yet fully imagine, perhaps allowing workers to focus on strategic and creative roles that machines can’t replicate. AI doesn’t have to be the end of work. It can be the beginning of better work.

Economic incentives are about to shift dramatically. Will free-market Republicans be tempted to become protectionists? Will big government progressives have to embrace deregulation and nuclear energy to protect threatened industries?

But in the process of getting from here to there, we face challenges that will test our resolve and the foundational principles that sustain our past success. AI threatens to create the perfect opportunity for globalists to build the central-planned economy they’ve always wanted.

America is very good at harnessing innovation to foster independence. If we approach this the right way, AI may empower us to innovate — to build a future where every American contributes on their own terms. We know that government doesn’t create jobs. Entrepreneurs do.

The key is not to resist, but to embrace AI as a tool that enhances independence — freeing us for meaningful pursuits like family, community and invention. We can build a future where every American contributes on their terms. For 250 years, these principles have stood the test of time. Instead of resisting progress we need to be directing it to more productive use.

For the first time in decades, the world’s two largest nuclear superpowers are no longer bound by any treaty limiting their arsenals.

The last remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the U.S. and Russia, known as New START, expired Thursday.

The lapse removed limits on how many nuclear weapons Washington and Moscow could deploy on missiles, bombers and submarines, and ended the requirement that both sides notify one another whenever nuclear weapons were moved.

The scale of what’s now unconstrained is vast. 

Globally, there are more than 12,200 nuclear weapons spread across nine nuclear-armed nations, according to a recent analysis. The United States and Russia alone account for roughly 10,636 of those weapons.

While the exact size of each country’s arsenal is closely guarded, below is a breakdown of estimated nuclear stockpiles, based on data from the Federation of American Scientists. 

Ahead of the New START agreement’s expiration, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social, ‘Rather than extend ‘NEW START’ (a badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future.’

He has previously argued that China should be included in any new agreement with Russia, pointing to Beijing’s growing nuclear arsenal, the world’s third largest after the U.S. and Russia.

Iran is prepared to pursue diplomacy while remaining ready to defend itself if challenged, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday, arguing that Tehran’s strength lies in its ability to stand firm against pressure.

‘We are a man of diplomacy, we are also a man of war; not in the sense that we seek war, but … we are ready to fight so that no one dares to fight us,’ he said, according to Press TV, Iran’s state-run English-language broadcaster.

Araghchi made the remarks in Tehran at the National Congress on the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Policy, two days after Iran and the United States held nuclear talks in Oman.

Fox News previously reported that negotiations between Iranian and U.S. officials in Muscat, the capital, were held face-to-face, marking the first such meetings since U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in June.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry described the talks as ‘intensive and lengthy’ in a post on X, saying the meetings allowed both sides to present their positions and concerns.

‘It was a good start, but its continuation depends on consultations in our respective capitals and deciding on how to proceed,’ the government account said.

It added there was broad agreement on continuing the negotiations, though decisions on timing, format and the next round will be made following consultations in the two capitals, with Oman continuing to serve as the intermediary.

Araghchi said Sunday that Iran views its nuclear program as a legitimate right and is seeking recognition of that position through negotiations.

‘I believe the secret of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s power lies in its ability to stand against bullying, domination and pressures from others,’ he said, according to Press TV.

‘They fear our atomic bomb, while we are not pursuing an atomic bomb. Our atomic bomb is the power to say no to the great powers,’ the top diplomat added. ‘The secret of the Islamic Republic’s power is to say no to the powers.’

President Donald Trump has expanded the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and the USS Michael Murphy, a guided-missile destroyer.

Other U.S. naval assets, including the USS Bulkeley, USS Roosevelt, USS Delbert D. Black, USS McFaul, USS Mitscher, USS Spruance and USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., are positioned across key waterways surrounding Iran, from the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea.

LEXINGTON, Va. – President Donald Trump’s poll numbers are a bit all over the place these days. The averages have him about seven points underwater, while some surveys show him down as much as 19. And then, one poll, the most accurate of 2024, has him up one point at 50%.

Likewise, large majorities of Americans say in polls that they want all illegal immigrants deported, but large majorities also say that the Trump administration is going too far in executing this policy. 

So, what do the American people actually want?

I traveled to Lexington, Va., to get a feel for what the reality is on the ground, below these shaky and inconsistent poll numbers, and what I found was good news and bad news for both parties and a midterm that is still wide open.

Brian, from nearby Lynchburg, was visiting town with his wife Erin. A chef in his early 50s and a former Republican, he finds Trump’s coarseness, and what he would call his racism, such as the recent social media post featuring the Obamas as monkeys, to be a dealbreaker.

Brian was very interesting because, while he knew he could not tolerate Trump, he was also quite forthright about the negative tradeoffs in voting for Democrats. When I asked him, as a business owner, about Virginia’s new governor, Abigail Spanberger, his response was telling.

‘I voted for her,’ Brian told me. ‘Part of me wishes I hadn’t had to, but I did, given the alternative.’

The alternative here seemed to be Trump, not Spanberger’s actual opponent and former Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, something that any Republican thinking of running by distancing themselves from Trump should consider. It probably won’t work anyway.

I pressed a bit on Spanberger, asking Brian if the wave of new taxes she supports worries him.

‘Absolutely it worries me,’ he said. ‘I’m a fiscal conservative. I have to balance my budget, and the government should too. But if the alternative is racism, then I have to reject that.’

Never mind that Sears is African-American. Brian was the perfect example of why Democrats focus so much on race and racial issues. For some voters, alleged racism on the president’s part will trump even their own policy beliefs and preferences and taint the party he rules.

This phenomenon can also look like fools gold to pollsters who see a voter with some conservative leanings who should be obtainable, but some, like Brian, just flat-out will never support Trump or the GOP so long as Trump leads it.

As Brian bluntly put it, ‘If it’s men in women’s sports or racism, I have to go with men in women’s sports.’

But it wasn’t all bad news for Trump in rural Virginia. Alice, who is in her 40s and works in real estate, thinks the Trump’s economic measures are starting to pay off.

‘I can just feel it,’ she told me. ‘Gas prices are low, more stuff is on sale at the grocery. That’s what we voted for.’

When I asked about Trump’s gruff manner, the one that bothered Brian so much, she just said, ‘If you aren’t used to it by now, you’re not getting used to it.’

Others, like Peter, in his 70s and retired, are feeling a real political fatigue. Apathy is the wrong word, but perhaps frustration fits.

‘Today, it’s like who you vote for is your whole identity,’ he said. ‘But I can’t fall out of a tree every time Donald Trump opens his mouth.

On Friday afternoon, a small protest of mostly older White people was gathered on a street corner in pretty-as-a-picture Lexington. Annette, the leader and spokesperson, was handing out cookies. Unlike their peers in Minneapolis, they were happy to talk with the press.

‘This is what we feared all along,’ one man holding the Virginia state flag with its motto, ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis,’ told me of the Trump administration’s handling of Minneapolis. ‘It’s why we have been out here protesting for a year.’

Generally speaking, the huge shifts that pollsters are so ardently looking for appear to exist more in the world of numbers than that of flesh and blood, where it continues to be very rare to meet anyone who has changed their mind politically in the age of Trump.

No, the fear for Republicans today is not that Trump or the party are bleeding support. It’s that the Democrats on the ground seem far more motivated to stop Trump than the Republican voters are to reward slow and steady progress.

Importantly, there does not appear to be anything that Trump could do, any position he could soften, be it on immigration enforcement, tariffs or his own rhetoric, that will sway the third of voters who just detest the man. But both Trump and the party have proven they can win without them.

From now until the midterm, we will be in the field with our ear on the ground, listening to the things that voters never tell the pollsters. And if Lexington is any indication, this is still anybody’s ballgame.

North Korean authorities executed teenagers for watching the South Korean television series ‘Squid Game’ and listening to K-pop, human rights researchers announced in early February.

Amnesty International cited testimony from an escapee with family ties in Yanggang Province who said people, including schoolchildren, were executed for specifically watching the popular survival drama series.

It also separately documented accounts of forced labor sentences and public humiliation for consuming South Korean media elsewhere in the country, particularly for those without money or political connections.

‘Usually when high school students are caught, if their family has money, they just get warnings,’ said Kim Joonsik, 28, who was caught watching South Korean dramas three times before leaving the country in 2019.

‘I didn’t receive legal punishment because we had connections,’ he told Amnesty International in an interview.

Joonsik said three of his sisters’ high school friends were given multi-year labor camp sentences in the late 2010s after being caught watching South Korean dramas, a punishment he said reflected their families’ inability to pay bribes.

‘The authorities criminalize access to information in violation of international law, then allow officials to profit off those fearing punishment. This is repression layered with corruption, and it most devastates those without wealth or connections,’ said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director.

‘This government’s fear of information has effectively placed the entire population in an ideological cage, suffocating their access to the views and thoughts of other human beings,’ she added. ‘People who strive to learn more about the world outside North Korea, or seek simple entertainment from overseas, face the harshest of punishments.’

Several defectors told the human rights organization that they were required to witness public executions while still in school, describing the practice as a form of state-mandated indoctrination designed to deter exposure to foreign culture.

‘When we were 16, 17, in middle school, they took us to executions and showed us everything,’ said Kim Eunju, 40. ‘People were executed for watching or distributing South Korean media. It’s ideological education: if you watch, this happens to you too.’